On 19 May 2010, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union adopted the recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2010/30/EU), to strengthen the energy performance requirements. The Directive states that as of 31 December 2020 new buildings in the EU will have to consume ‘nearly zero’ energy and the energy will have to be ‘to a very large extent’ from renewable sources.

Meeting these requirements means that construction is implemented properly and in a high quality. Already the building boom in many Central and Eastern European countries in 2006-2008 showed that quality differs greatlya and many buildings erected in this period have constructional defects. Due to that reason there was a need for a training program having a holistic approach by bringing together different aspects of energy efficient urban planning down to details of construction and finding out how to make energy efficient houses more attractive and desirable for citizens.

The INTENSE training program focusses on these aspects and on how to achieve the low energy/passive house standard. It has a modular approach consists of 9 modules which can be combined according to local needs.